L ITERATURE REVIEW

A search on Google Scholar for “Crew Resource Management” gives 243.000 hits (15.01.20).

The literature review reflects the fact that field of CRM is comprehensive. A thorough literature review has been conducted to give the reader an introduction of the concept of CRM. The review also seeks to find out if CRM shows positive effects, if it has been implemented in other areas with success and if it has been expanded in the non-operational parts of organizations before. If not, it emphasizes the need for this research.

1.3.1 Does CRM work?

Salas, Burke, Bowers, and Wilson (2001) reviewed 58 published papers on CRM training to determine its effectiveness in aviation. Five years later they published another review of 28 papers on CRM within aviation and other fields (Salas, Wilson, Burke, & Wightman, 2006).

3 Both articles used the four level model (reaction, learning, behavior and organizational results) for evaluating training programs developed by Kirkpatrick (1967), see Figure 1.

Figure 1 Four levels of evaluation of training (Kirkpatrick, 1967)

The results from both reviews indicated that the CRM training had positive effects in the participants when it came to reaction, learning and behavior, but when it came to level 4 results there was little evidence showing that CRM has a positive effect on the organizations safety overall. That however does not mean that CRM does not have a positive effect on the organization’s overall safety, but rather illustrates the lack of measuring CRM’s effect on organizations as the authors state. It has not been empirically established that CRM leads to a reduction in the number of accidents. Because of the difficulty of measuring the effectiveness of CRM, evidence on an organization as a whole is seldom collected. This kind of measurement requires longitudinal data, which is not only time-consuming, but also hard to define criteria for. It is also challenging to control external variables that might influence an organizations effectiveness or safety. Another point to make here is that in the cases from the review, they implement CRM only in the sharp end and expect results to show in the whole organization.

In 2003 the Civil Aviation Authority UK published a report on the methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of CRM training in the UK aviation industry. Their review indicated that there were positive effects of CRM training. However, the report found that few companies were

4 measuring and evaluating the multi-level effects of CRM training, mainly because training personnel have limited resources and experience in evaluating effectiveness. The report also stated that assessments on the organizational level are difficult to carry out. While most organizations say that their main goal with CRM is to improve overall safety and effectiveness, this is very rarely evaluated due to reasons mentioned above (O’Connor, Flin, Fletcher, &

Hemsley, 2003).

While most of the research find indications of positive effects of CRM (Bolstad, 2018; Goeters, 2002; O'Connor et al., 2008; Taylor, Robertson, Peck, & Stelly, 1993; Thompson, Tourville, Spiker, & Nullmeyer, 1999), Helmreich and Wilhelm (1991) found that some participants showed a negative change in their attitudes. They seemed to resist the concepts of CRM and in fact moved further away from the desired behavior after CRM training. They raise the issue, and challenge organizations to deal with CRM failures, where crew members might be unable or unwilling to adopt the CRM concepts. However, Helmreich and Foushee (1993) suggest that this will be mitigated by selecting pilots and crews based in their abilities to work in a team, or CRM skills.

1.3.2 CRM in other fields

Since its introduction in the aviation industry in the late 1970s, the CRM concept has been adopted in many other fields that require high reliability in teams at the sharp end. For instance Bridge Resource Management and Maritime Crew Resource Management in the maritime sector (Weintrit & Neumann, 2016), Anesthetists’ Non-Technical Skills in health care (Flin &

Patey, 2011), and offshore oil platform teams in the oil industry (O'Connor & Flin, 2003).

Salas, Wilson, Burke, Wightman, and Howse (2006, p. 65) claim “one of the greatest challenges still faced by the CRM community is how to move from a community of interest to a community of practice. (..) CRM needs to be more about ‘walking the walk’ and not just ‘talking the talk’.” Further, they claim that CRM training lacks standardization when it comes to what to train and how to train it, and that might hinder its progress. They go on to claim that if CRM is trained and defined differently from field to field, or even airline to airline, it is hard to accumulate knowledge and learn from each other. On the other hand, Havinga, De Boer, Rae, and Dekker (2017) claim that standardization once made sense, however today when CRM is applied in so many varied fields, it is more important to adapt the training concept to the actual

5 field and thoroughly describe what the training consists of, what it is intended to do and what change is expected.

1.3.3 CRM in relation to organizations as a whole

Salas, Bowers, and Edens (2001) published “Improving teamwork in organizations:

Applications of Resource Management” that outlines the progress in the field of CRM and provides evidence that CRM can be applied to a variety of contexts and occupations, and that it can provide benefits in organizations. They claimed, in 2001, that CRM training has not reached corporate America, even though there has been an increased focus on team training and how human factors affect performance. Further, the authors claim that CRM can help increase teamwork in various settings and also solve organizational problems (Salas, Bowers, et al., 2001, p. 2). “We seek to launch CRM training into a wide variety of industries and organizations as a viable intervention that can be used to enhance teamwork and organizational effectiveness as well as minimize human error” (Salas, Bowers, et al., 2001, p.

3). Salas, Wilson, Burke, Wightman, et al. (2006) problematize this because CRM training in general still has not gotten the attention from the so-called “upper echelons” of organizations.

The problem is that CRM training costs money, and unless CRM training shows positive economic impact on the bottom line, it will be challenging to make organizations prioritize CRM programs. The paradox, they claim, is that CRM will not be successful if it does not have the full support of the organization, and most organizations will only support it if it is a success (Salas, Wilson, Burke, Wightman, et al., 2006). The book supports that CRM has something to offer in the organization, although the authors are only talking about applying resource management in the sharp end teams of the organization.

Vik and Løge (2016) examined factors that affect incident reporting in Bristow Norway.

Bristow Norway is, like CHC, an offshore helicopter operator. They found that there was a lack of communication and trust between parts of the management and the technicians in the organization, which led to a decreased willingness to report. There was also insecurity around what should and must be reported. Bad communication between the management and those working in the operational part of the organization was brought forward as a problem that can influence safety in the sharp end.

Dowd (2010) is the only literature found where CRM has been integrated to an airline’s culture.

This does not mean that it has not been done with other airlines or industries, but there is a lack

6 of documentation available to the public and a lack of scientific literature concerning the subject. The integration of CRM in Air Canada led to a change in the organization which in the long run led to a change of culture in the airline. The article emphasizes the complexity of organizational culture change. The author says that the integration of CRM in Air Canada is only anecdotal, from the perspective of a participant and the change agent. The results showed that Air Canada’s culture not only changed, but the CRM concept became a way of doing business, from the boardroom to the training department. The author claims that it takes about eight to ten years to achieve these results. “In the late 1980s CRM started in the cockpit, as Cockpit Resource Management. Then it became Crew Resource Management, and, finally, Corporate Resource Management” (Dowd, 2010, p. 382).

Anca (2010) outlines how CRM is trained outside the USA in the article “Conversations on CRM outside the USA”. In this article an employee from an Argentinian airline said that if CRM is not expanded to other areas of the organization, the training is not complete. He further says that the focus in his region is to promote the “complete” or corporate training of CRM.

However, it is not mentioned how this expansion has happened or how it should happen.

In the 2010 edition of “Crew Resource Management” the authors provide some final words about the new challenges and possibilities within CRM: “In yet another more interesting development, airlines have attempted to extend CRM into other non-operational departments.

These initiatives are enviable and honestly heroic. Some have called these programs

‘Management Resource Management’ or ‘Organizational Resource Management.’ By whatever label, the future holds much promise only if it is guided by learning from CRM implementation it is early stages” (Helmreich, Kanki, & Wiener, 2010, pp. 498-499). However, the 2019 edition provided no further research or comment on the transition to the organization, except for in the description of the six generations of CRM, where the third generation, or framework as it is referred to there, is described as: “#3. Organizational Inclusion and Culture (1993): Crew resource management, CRM beyond aviation, Corporate resource management”

(Farrow, 2019, p. 480). According to this author, corporate resource management became a part of CRM in 1993.

7 Summary

As the literature review reveals, most of the research is centered around teams in the sharp end of operational performance. Research seems to be lacking on how CRM can or should be implemented in the rest of the organization, and what effects that might have.

o CRM training has shown to have positive effects when it comes to reaction, learning and behavior leading to a reduction in human error. There is little, or no evidence, found in the literature that shows that CRM in the sharp end has a positive effect on the organization’s overall safety.

o Several researchers stress that there are issues and challenges concerning measuring effects from CRM training, to the point where many do not measure at all due to lack of resources or other factors.

o The concept of CRM has received a great deal of attention outside the aviation industry and CRM has been implemented in many other industries.

o There is no scientific literature about implementation of CRM in the non-operational parts of an organization. However, there are several sources saying CRM training is not complete until it has reached the whole organization.

o CRM seems to be a concept that is implemented and trained in the sharp end, though results are expected on an organizational level.